BALDWINSVILLE — Church on the Island, the nondenominational Sunday service founded by the Baldwinsville First United Methodist Church in 2016, has returned for its seventh season.
“You know it’s summer when Church on the Island is on,” said Jim Sollecito, chair of the Church on the Island Welcome Committee.
The woman who started it all, retired FUMC pastor Rev. Patti Walz, was the guest preacher for the informal morning service June 19. Guest preachers will lead the services throughout Church on the Island’s 12-week season.
“You’re going to get two things: a tune to hum inside your head when you leave, and a good message,” Sollecito said.
While many traditional churches switched to virtual meetings during the pandemic, the outdoor setting allowed Church on the Island to continue despite COVID.
“We went right through COVID without missing a week. We got safety cones and marked off [social distancing],” Sollecito said. “We wore masks and we hummed tunes. We weren’t allowed to sing, so we hummed.”
In addition to guest preachers, Church on the Island invites local musicians to share their talents. Phill Sterling, founder of the Baldwinsville Community Band, serves as accompanist. Avery Head opened the June 19 service with a performance on the bagpipes, which he has played since 1960. Head shares a non-church connection with Walz: they both taught at Liverpool schools, where he taught science and she taught music.
Figuratively and literally, congregants take a variety of paths to Church on the Island. Walz told the Messenger in 2019 that the services draw people who are searching for a new church to join, regular churchgoers looking to augment their weekly worship experience and visitors who are just passing through.
“People bicycle there, people come by boat, people drive, people walk,” Sollecito said.
In its first year, Church on the Island drew 25 to 30 attendees at each service. The crowd has doubled, Sollecito said, to approximately 50 to 60 people each week.
Rain does not deter the worshipers.
“B’ville people are a hardy lot and they know how to dress for the weather,” Sollecito said.
Worshiping on the river, surrounded by wildlife and water, can be healing for many churchgoers, Walz said in 2019.
“A number of our congregants, we found out since the first summer, are going through difficult times. They’re grieving; they need healing. The outdoor setting is beautiful and seems to be what they need at the time,” she said. “We’ve enjoyed fish jumping and birds calling, eagles.”
Sollecito said Church on the Island is a vital part of his Sunday routine.
“I feel like I have a direct contact with heaven instead of having a roof in the way,” he said. “When you have the water moving by you on either side and the sky above, it’s almost as if you can feel time going by as the clouds go overhead … and we understand perhaps just a little bit better our relationship with nature and our journey, which will eventually have an ending.”
Church on the Island meets at 8 a.m. Sundays through Sept. 4 at the amphitheater on Paper Mill Island in the village of Baldwinsville. All are welcome. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own chairs. For more information, follow Church on the Island on Facebook.
The organization accepts donations to cover its expenses and to donate to the Baldwinsville Community Food Pantry.
“Because we are nondenominational, we accept donations in any denomination,” Sollecito said. “After our expenses we return those donations to the community in the form of the B’ville Food Pantry.”
